Why is my colleague making fun of my standing desk?

I have started using a standing desk at work and have been a little surprised to find it has been greeted with doubt from people I work with. One person is making fun of me – it is light-hearted but still a little prickly, if that makes sense.

I wonder if the reason for this response is the mistaken belief that I am trying to show off. I am not trying to insinuate that my sitting colleagues are “wrong”. I am worried merely about sitting all day and thought standing was a well-established way of avoiding that. Am I ignoring something obvious?

Studies dating back to the 1950s show that sitting all day makes you more likely to suffer a heart attack.Credit: John Shakespeare

I don’t think you’re missing anything. In fact, I think you’re on the right track on both questions – why your co-workers are being a bit negative, and whether sitting all day is something you should avoid.

While some of your colleagues might be good-natured in their ribbing – just having a chuckle at the novelty of your new set-up – the “pricklier” response may very well come from an assumption that you’re making a pointed statement.

And if these verbal barbs aren’t a response to a perceived insult, they might be a form of indignance. Perhaps your slightly more crabby teammate thinks you’re participating in a frivolous fad rather than making a change for genuine health reasons.

You’re not, though.

Sitting at a desk for work is now so routine and conventional in the post-industrial world that most of us don’t even question it.

For a very long time, research has shown that sitting for too long is bad for your health. As early as the 1950s, a study in the UK found that bus drivers, who sat most of the workday, were twice as likely to suffer a heart attack than conductors, who spent more time standing. Seventy years on, and this finding hasn’t been debunked. On the contrary.

If you’ve kept even half an eye on the news in the last 20 years you’ll be familiar with the headline that “sitting is the new smoking”. And although it sounds like sensationalism, there’s a good amount of evidence pointing to the fact it’s not even all that hyperbolic.

The Victorian Department of Health, through its Better Health Channel, uses precisely these words, in fact. It reports that “physical inactivity contributes to over three million preventable deaths worldwide each year”.

It also says it causes cancer – breast and colon, specifically – as well as diabetes and certain forms of heart disease. Furthermore, it goes on to declare that “physical inactivity is the second-highest cause of cancer in Australia”. The first is smoking.

Sitting at a desk for work is now so routine and conventional in the post-industrial world that most of us don’t even question it. What we have started to question is whether we should be doing it for long stretches, and the answer according to the experts is a resounding no.

The University of Queensland recently said that “current guidelines strongly point towards the value of varying postures, positions and alternating between sitting and standing throughout the day”.

As you told me in your email, a standing desk is a good way to make this variation easier. But so is getting up and going for walks at regular intervals. And, in a more general sense, being active outside work is just as important as avoiding too much sedentary work.

Again, these aren’t my ideas – this is a constant refrain in so much of the advice from researchers who study the problem of sedentary lifestyles.

It’s not a perfect solution. Although standing for long periods isn’t as bad for your health as sitting for long periods, without breaks it can cause, for example, musculoskeletal problems. But, as you’ve hinted in your email, you already know it’s not some kind of panacea.

For that reason, it’s clear that your decision to try a standing desk wasn’t an attempt to show off. Or to show up your colleagues, most of whom were probably just surprised to see someone trying something different.

It does sound, however, like one of them is being a touch narrow-minded, and possibly curmudgeonly. Maybe they themselves need to get up occasionally – to stretch their muscles, but also the very tight limits of their patience.

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